


When My Master Comes

by bluedragoninamber



Category: Pre-Star Wars: The Phantom Menace - Fandom, Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Bittersweet Ending, Death With Dignity, Gen, Major Character Injury, Major character death - Freeform, Supernatural Elements, discussion of end of life issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-03
Updated: 2017-09-03
Packaged: 2018-12-23 09:23:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11986899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluedragoninamber/pseuds/bluedragoninamber
Summary: From a certain point of view, some truths are kinder than others.  This is a time for those kinder truths.





	When My Master Comes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning](https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning/gifts).



** Disclaimer ** **: I don’t own it, and I am making on money off of it.**

** AN ** **: This story is a gift for I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning. It is pre-Phantom Menace, and Obi-Wan is nineteen-years-old. Warning for major character death and the aftermath of grave physical injury (though it is not graphic in any way) as well as discussion of end-of-life issues and death with dignity.**

            “When will my master come?”

            Healer Vokara Che called on the Force to steady herself and to find a reassuring smile for Obi-Wan. She had answered this question a thousand times since Obi-Wan’s injury. It never got any easier.

            “Soon, Obi-Wan. As soon as he gets back from his mission, he’ll come.” She stroked the nineteen-year old’s ginger hair. It had grown out since his accident, and with Obi-Wan paralyzed from the neck down, cutting it wasn’t high on the priority list.

            “I wish I could see him. But I know we must do our duty. Those people need him,” Obi-Wan said.

            Vokara smiled, continuing to stroke his hair. “Yes, they do. Just like those people needed you.”

            Obi-Wan’s smile slipped just a bit. “Do you think he will be proud of me? Even though I got injured?”

            The healer turned away, a cough covering the sob she wanted to make. “Of course, he will! You saved all those people, and now, we will take care of you.”

            “Until my master comes, right?” Obi-Wan asked. Though his body was still, his smile was the same bright light that it had always been.

            Vokara blinked rapidly. “Yes, Obi-Wan. Until your master comes. Now, I know it’s getting late. Try to relax, and I’m going to give you some medicine to help you sleep, okay?”

            The teen’s eyes were already closing, but he blinked them open again. “Will you wake me when my master comes?” Obi-Wan asked.

            Vokara looked away, busying herself with the sedative she was administering and thus keeping her eyes out of his sight.

            “When he comes, I will wake you. I promise,” she said softly. Obi-Wan’s hearing had been compromised by the explosion that had paralyzed him so he did not hear the roughness in her voice. When she felt composed enough to turn back, the teen was asleep, a smile on his face.

            “Sleeping, the boy is?” Yoda asked, as Mace followed him into the room.

            Vokara sighed, rubbing her face. “Yes. Masters. I’m not sure how much longer we can keep this up. He’s believed me so far about his Force sense being compromised by his accident. I know this deception is well-intentioned. But Masters, I am under the vow of a healer which supersedes even my vows to our Order. Part of that healer’s vow is to do no harm. This situation has progressed to the point that I am no longer sure that this campaign of benign deception is beneficial to Obi-Wan anymore.” She blinked rapidly, trying to give her emotions to the Force. Dark hands covered hers gently, and she looked up at Master Windu and managed a shaky smile.

            Mace held her gaze. “The Council is aware that we have placed you in a difficult position. We are grateful, for Obi-Wan’s sake, that you have been willing to comply.” Abruptly, Mace dropped his formality and slumped a little. “Tell us truthfully, Vokara. What is Obi-Wan’s prognosis?”

            The healer pulled her hands away from his. “Bad and getting worse. Whatever was in that weapon he was hit with infected his blood stream, and we have simply not been able to find a counter. His body is breaking down rapidly, and the Force has not been able to heal him. All we can do at this point is keep him comfortable and free of pain.”

            Mace swallowed hard. “How much of his bodily functions are you currently supporting?”

            Vokara gathered herself and met his dark eyes unflinchingly. “Everything. We can keep him alive for many years this way. But in answer to the question you have yet to ask, if we withdrew the support, he would not last another day.”

            Mace glanced beside him at Yoda whose ears were drooping. “Grandmaster, the Council has discussed this situation at length. It’s your call.”

            Yoda’s hand tightened on his gimer stick. “Believe, I do, that Obi-Wan, we should ask.”

            Vokara took a deep breath. “Okay. We’ll ask him tomorrow.” She paused. “Would you have him know the truth about his master? I don’t like it, but I will comply a while longer if I must.”

            Yoda shook his head. “The truth, he does not need. Let him keep his hope, we should.”

            Lost in dreams of his master, traces of a smile still on his lips, Obi-Wan slept.

            The entire Council convened in the Healing Halls the following morning. Though Obi-Wan could not even move to sit up straight, his facial muscles tensed slightly, and his eyes looked sharply around at the group.

            It was Vokara who explained Obi-Wan’s medical prognosis, but it was Mace who explained the choice he now had to make.

            “The decision is yours, Obi-Wan. It is yours by right because it is ideally the right of every person, to be able to choose when to stop outside intervention and allow life to run its course. We will not judge you for your decision whichever you choose.” Mace took a deep breath, steadying his emotions the best he could.

            Obi-Wan was silent, his eyes far away for a time. “I choose to let go,” he finally said. “There is no death. There is the Force. I think it’s time I learned the truth of that for myself.”

            All those present bowed their heads in acknowledgement. “Your choice, it is. Your choice, we will honor.” Yoda glanced around the group and then back at the teen. “To knight you, the Council has decided. Selfless and brave, you were. Saved others rather than yourself. Worthy of knighthood, you are.”

            Obi-Wan’s eyes widened. “I’m honored, Master Yoda.” He paused, biting his lip. “Is my master still on his mission?”

            Yoda exchanged a glance with Mace. “On his mission, he remains. Delicate, his mission is. Many people depending on him, there are.”

            Mace smoothly continued, “But I spoke to him by comm early this morning. Though he was extremely upset to learn of your condition, he wanted you to know something beyond a shadow of a doubt. Obi-Wan, your master is incredibly proud of you, and he considers it to have been his greatest and dearest honor to have raised you to knighthood.”

            Obi-Wan’s smile was blinding, and his Force sense nearly glowed with joy. Everyone couldn’t help but smile back, smiles that lingered even as Vokara Che, quickly and quietly, removed the equipment that had kept the young man’s failing body functioning. They would use the Force to keep him breathing long enough to be knighted.

            When the last machine was off, Vokara and her assistant helped Obi-Wan sit up. They’d carefully fixed his braid, adding one final bead that they had found in Qui-Gon’s quarters. Mace had remembered the bright green bead because Qui-Gon had showed it to him when he found it, telling him that he was holding it for Obi-Wan. Now, if for only a moment, Obi-Wan had his master’s final gift.

            Despite the concentrated effort of the healers and the Council, Obi-Wan was beginning to struggle to breathe. Hastily, Yoda ignited his lightsaber, and all the other Councilors did the same along with Vokara and her assistants. With a quick, sure movement, Yoda severed Obi-Wan’s braid.

            “Obi-Wan Kenobi, by the right of the Council, by the will of the Force, I dub thee Jedi, Knight of the Republic,” Yoda declared. The assembled group saluted him with their sabers as Obi-Wan grinned.

            “Make sure you give my master my braid when he comes, Master Yoda,” Obi-Wan said, even as he gasped for another breath.

            Yoda took the braid reverently in his hands. “Make certain to give it to him, I will, Obi-Wan. To peace now, you will go.”

            One more rattling breath sounded from the young knight. Then his lips spread into a pained but joyful smile. His eyes widened as he looked beyond them at something only he could see.

            “Master! You came! I knew you would come for me!” Obi-Wan’s chest did not rise again, but traces of that last smile remained on his face. And those gathered with him felt a faint brush of a familiar presence…the master who had come to witness his padawan’s Knighting just before he took him home.

            With a trembling hand, Mace reached out to close Obi-Wan’s bright eyes. “Master Yoda, did you feel...?”

            Yoda smiled as others around the room nodded. “Feel him, I did. Though gone into the Force, Qui-Gon Jinn is, his padawan’s Knighting, he would not miss.” He sighed. “In stasis, Qui-Gon’s body has been. Now, a joint pyre, the master and his knight together, we will give them. What they would have wanted, that is.”

            Several hours later, a pyre burned at the Temple. Beyond sight of the living, two presences watched together.

            “Come, my knight. It is time to go home.”

            Qui-Gon took Obi-Wan’s hand and walked with him into the embrace of the Force.

**Author's Note:**

> AN: If you were confused, this is what happened. Obi-Wan and his master were on a mission. There was an attack, and Obi-Wan survived, but became infected with a disease from the weapon that caused him to have a degenerative case of quadriplegia. Qui-Gon died, but everyone told Obi-Wan he had survived and was on an important mission in order to keep the young man’s spirits up. They told him that his connection to the Force was injured in order to explain why Obi-Wan could no longer feel his training bond with Qui-Gon. The rest should be self-explanatory.


End file.
